210 WILD ANIMAL CELEBRITIES 



gators, no more swaggering, vigorous switches 

 of his strong tail which often turned the 

 smaller alligators over into the pool whether 

 they wanted to go there or not. After this 

 time, he kept usually in a corner by himself, 

 where he lay in that deadly dull, motionless, 

 uninteresting way which all alligators have. 



There was a time when, with all the other 

 alligators, he would lift up his head at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees, and bellow or roar 

 every time the bell in the Reptile House rang 

 at noon. After his conquest, he would lift 

 his head from perhaps force of habit, but his 

 bellow was weak and feeble and completely 

 drowned in the roar of his companions. I 

 think I am right in saying that alligators are 

 the only crocodilian who utter a vocal sound 

 of any sort. 



I used to watch Old Mose carefully after 

 his conquest, but it was very uninteresting in 

 a way. The most vivid imagination could 

 scarcely find any expression in an alligator, 

 and Old Mose would lie there with closed eyes, 

 and when occasionally, the curious films which 



